Turkey announces its archives open to historians

Turkey opened all of its archives for historians, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said at a joint press conference with his French counterpart Francois Hollande on January 27, Turkish TV channel TRT Haber reported.

"It would have been wrong to transfer pain from generation to generation. All we need to do is to hand the history to historians. We have been ready to open all our archives and we have done it. Turkish legislature was creating some obstacles in discussing of certain topics, but we have changed the laws. Everything can be discussed in Turkey," - Gul said.

According to Hollande, investigation of past events is underway.

"We will do everything that is necessary to inform the society," - Hollande said.

It should be noted, that this is the first official visit by a French president to Turkey in 22 years.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that the predecessor of Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, had committed the 1915 genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia and achieved recognition of the "Armenian Genocide" by the parliaments of several countries.

In January 2012, the French parliament adopted a bill criminalising denial of genocides recognised by law including the so-called 'genocide' of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The document called for a sentence of a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros for denial of the 'genocide'.